A question of bass... Several actually.

If you want to keep the mids and highs of the Primaluna, and still get respectable bass, you have to have a set of speakers that are designed to allow the amplifier to do just that.

For more information on matching equipment see
http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html

Dynaudios for the most part are not designed for tubes, being Voltage Paradigm technology. In addition, their efficiency is so low that you will really need about 600 watts to really make them work if you want life-like spls.

Audiokinesis has made some very impressive speakers that also play bass on lower powered tube amps. Coincident is another, but you might be looking at used to get in the price window you have.

I have a pair of Dyn Aud 82 in the garage waiting for new amplification. Big bad and beautiful. Picked em up locally on Craigslist for a good deal, in great shape and all pkging. Let's put it this way, I have a pair of Bel Canto Ref 1000 mkii on the way. Can't wait to throw 1000 watts and outrageous damping factor to those woofers. The owner's set up did not sound great--and made the Dyns sound flat like you said earlier. He had an old parasound amp and a crappy phillips cd changer for a source. Curiously for a purported a/v installer, he had the gain set too low too, which limited the current from the amp. But I really liked their imaging, soundstaging, smooth treble and build quality. They seemed to have potential. They got my toes tapping--always a good sign in a speaker, especially a big one-- and I decided to take a chance that what was missing from the equation was good equipment with enough current to make em sing. This won't be the most revealing and refined set up, but I think it's gonna rock when I turn it to "11". I think it is going to be fun. I also considered a parasound halo a21 which does well with these speakers. But I really wanted to throw some power to em. I'd suggest the same for the Aud 72s. Good luck and have fun!

Dear Ranechak: +++++ " Is it necessary to spend $1000 per speaker or over to have audible, palpable, appropriate bass reproduction? +++++

IMHO it is necessary for low bass with good pitch, definition/precision, no overhang, etc, etc.

the 72's goes down in room maybe no more ( usuable ) than 50Hz that belongs more to the low mid bass that to the low bass. Btw, IMHO the " diso dancing bass " it is something totally different: in an audio pure concepts that is not bass.

About what the salesman told you that a separate sub is not appropiate on high end I think that he has a misunderstood about.

+++++ " doesn't putting the amp output into a sub's crossover to be split to satellites compromise imaging etc? " +++++

IMHO the answer is NO. As a fact it help to those speakers and your whole quality system performance achieve a level that you ever dream about.

If you can please read what I psted on the subject, maybe it could help you:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1238000018

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

When I asked about bass (speakers having full bass response) the salesman (who owns the shop) said "If you want bass you have to shell out the big bucks."
Is that it?
Is it necessary to spend $1000 per speaker or over to have audible, palpable, appropriate bass reproduction?

Good bass is really expensive. Just think about it - a good subwoofer is at least $3K if not a lot more. This is physics. You can get modest amounts of small speaker big bass sound from resonant designs which are underdamped for low cost - however this is really what I would call "fake bass". It isn't bad but it just doesn't sound like real musical instruments that's all.

I'd say I agree with your salesman if you are talking accurate bass reproduction. Big woofers in big boxes aren't cheap.

Shadorne,

There is probably some curve you can draw where the cost of accurately reproducing bass notes increases geometrically with lower frequency, requiring increasing quantities of power, woofer area and box volume and bracing. SO yes, "accurate" bass costs a lot of money (and breaks your back moving it around your room).

But I do think you can get "good sounding and reasonably accurate" bass with decent floor standing speakers like the Audience 72 by driving them with a powerful and high dampening amplifier.

And I also think there is nothing wrong with using good subwoofers to augment your system's ability to reproduce the lowest notes, but it requires patience, a sound meter and a good ear to set things up properly.